The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes ThereonSearight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
History
The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes Thereon
Searight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
Cumberland Road; Pennsylvania -- Biography
Alfred Wolf, an old stage driver, is remembered as a large, fine looking
and blustering sort of a man. His wife was a sister of Watson and
Robinson Murphy, two well known, thrifty and highly esteemed farmers of
Fayette county, Pennsylvania. The marriage ceremony that made Miss
Martha Murphy the lawful wife of Alfred Wolf was performed by the late
Hon. William Hatfield, when that gentleman was an acting Justice of the
Peace for Redstone township, and the writer hereof was present at the
wedding. When stage drivers were no longer required on the National
Road, Alfred Wolf engaged in the business of tavern keeping, and for a
number of years kept a public house in McClellandtown; and when the
strife between the States culminated in actual hostilities, he enlisted
as a Union soldier and perished in the cause. His widow went to Ohio,
re-married, and is still living in that State.
Henry G. Marcy, called Governor, because of his near kinship to the old
time, distinguished New York statesman of that name, who was at the head
of the War Department during the conflict with Mexico, was a stage
driver and lived in Uniontown. He was a small man in stature, but had a
bright and clear intellect. He died in Uniontown a number of years ago
at an advanced age, leaving a widow, still surviving, but quite feeble by
reason of her great age. George E. Marcy, also called Governor, a well
known and active Democratic politician of Uniontown, is a son of the old
driver.
Joseph Hughes, an old stage driver, is still living in Washington,
Pennsylvania, vivacious and sprightly despite the weight of years piled
upon his back. He was an expert and trusty driver, well known along the
road, and cherishes the memory of the stirring times, when the road was
the great highway of the Nation and he and his fellow drivers rode on
the top wave of the excitement incident thereto.
James Bradley, an old stage driver, worked sometimes at repairs on the
road. He made a breaker of unusual height on the hill east of
Washington, Pennsylvania, and upon being questioned as to his motive for
making it so high, replied that "he wanted to give some of the boys a
lofty toss." A few days thereafter, he was in service as a driver
himself, and going down the hill mentioned at a rapid rate, to "scoot
the hollow," as he termed it, his coach struck the high breaker and he
got the "lofty toss" himself, having been thrown from the box, a
distance of nearly two rods, causing him a broken arm and other less
serious injuries. He said, after this accident, that he would never
again make high breakers on the road, or advise others to do so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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